In this article we are going to try and help you remove Moonly Web Search . Our instructions cover all Windows versions as well as most browsers – Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.

Browser Hijackers are by far one of the most annoying things that can happen to you online, not counting trolls and vegans. But like it is with most problems in life, you just need to be an adult about it and deal with them. And that is precisely what this article is all about. We will tell you about the most important aspects of your current problem titled Moonly Web Search , as well as some tips on how to prevent it from entering your system ever again. In addition to this, we’ve included a guide with several simple steps that will help you remove this nuisance once and for all.

Moonly.com

So, what is Moonly Web Search actually?

As a program that falls under the category of Browser Hijacker, Moonly Web Search is software designed to generate numerous ads and display them within your browser. The ads come in different shapes and sizes, as you may very well know by now, including pop-ups, banners, the imminent page redirects and box messages. The point of this whole advertising circus is to make a profit from each click the ads land. Unless you’ve heard of this before, it might sound a little bizarre, but this is actually a very popular online business model called the Pay-Per-Click scheme or PPC. But where money’s involved, people tend to not necessarily play by the rules. In order to make the ads more appealing and make them attract more clicks, the developers want to customize those ads and make them more relevant to the specific users. How they do it? Browser Hijacker is pretty notorious for being able to collect information regarding your browsing habits. It takes note of all your search queries, the websites you visit, your bookmarked pages, etc. After this the ads are then modified to fit that gathered information and you might have even noticed this yourself.

Many users are strongly opposed to this practice and not just because of the fact that Browser Hijacker can store this information, but more so because the developers tend to pass it on by selling to third parties. The thing is that these third parties can be anyone and they could have any plans for your data. In addition to this drawback, there’s another one that might push you towards wanting to remove Moonly Web Search as quickly as you can. Because of the nature of the customized ads, it would be foolish to expect that each and every one of the ads that’s been tailored to your preferences is real. It’s just not doable. So some of the ads might be showing one thing, but actually redirecting you to another as a result. Sounds fairly harmless, just a little white lie, right? No problem. BUT – and there’s always a ‘but’ – there are the rare occasions, when a certain ad could send you to a malicious or illegal website. Not only could you get in trouble for being there (unlikely), you can actually get infected by some dangerous virus, like a Trojan or the infamous ransomware. Nobody would want that. You surely wouldn’t want that. And yes, it’s not said that you will necessarily end up having malware rain over you, it is a possibility and our advice is to avoid interacting with any of the flashy banners and popups. At all.

So, Mooonly Web Search is a virus then?

Wrong. Just because there’s the remote probability of being redirected someplace that viruses call home doesn’t make this particular program is a virus. Browser Hijacker is often regarded as potentially unwanted, but that’s about it. To dissolve any doubts, Browser Hijacker is in fact most of the times completely legal software. This automatically relieves any affiliation with the terms ‘virus’ and ‘malware’. Nonetheless, because of the reasons mentioned above, it’s not recommended to let it hang around on your system for too long. Doing so could result in a substantial slacking of your PC’s performance, browser crashes, system errors and other more annoying and obstructive things. You’ll notice that a lot your computer’s resources are being used by this program and that is all directly related to the distribution of the many-many ads in your browser. Therefore, it’s time to wrap this speech up and for you to move on to the removal guide. Let us know in the comments if you ran into any difficulties along the way.

Moonly Web Search Removal

Many types of malware will restrict your access to their core files. It is highly recommended that you reboot your PC in safe mode before attempting to use this guide.

WARNING! If you are using Windows 8,0 or later and/or your operating system is installed on a fast SSD drive this may fail to work. In this case click here to see how to start your PC in Safe Mode.

#1: Uninstall the malicious program from your control panel

[bannerMiddle]

Enter control panel to look for any suspicious programs, which may have installed on your PC. To do that:

Navigate to your Desktop

Press simultaneously the Win button together with the R button (Win+R)

In the Run window that just opened type appwiz.cpl

Go through the list of programs and find Moonly Web Search or anything else that may seem suspicious. Right-click on it and choose the uninstallation option

WARNING! Carefully read any confirmation messages that may be created in the process. Sometimes you may get offers to download more Browser Hijacker applications and this can be linked to either the Yes or the No answer depending on the wording!

Optional:

Go through the list of programs again and check online for any potentially unwanted programs. We have an article that covers this awesome free software that makes sure that your computer is free from bloatware and programs that you don’t need.

#2: Remove Moonly Web Search From Chrome

Now we’ll remove the extensions that the malware has attached to your browser.

Open your Google Chrome browser.

Type chrome://extensions/ in the URL address bar and press Enter.

Click on “Developer Mode” on the top right and look for the extension installed by Moonly Web Search and anything that might be related to it. Copy their IDs (the string of letters), then remove them by clicking on the trash bin icon.

Type Regedit in the Windows Start Menu and press Enter. Go in : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\Extensions and delete the entries corresponding to the suspicious IDs you recorded.

#3: Remove Moonly Web Search From Firefox

Open Mozilla Firefox browser.

Type “about:support” in the URL address bar and press Enter.

Click on the “Refresh Firefox” button on the right and confirm.

#4 Remove Moonly Web Search From Internet Explorer

Open your Internet Explorer internet browser.

Click on the Gear icon on the up right, then on manage add-ons.

Go through the list disable any suspicious extensions.

#5 Remove any leftover parasitic processes

[bannerMiddleSecond]

From the task manager:

Use Ctrl + Shift + Esc and open the Task manager, then click on the Processes

Go through the list of processes and look for unknown or otherwise suspicious entries.

If you see anything suspicious right click on the process and shoes Open File Location, then terminate the process and delete any files you find in the directory.

WARNING! If the directory you open from this menu has no files inside of it it’s probably because the malware has hidden them. You need to reveal hidden files and folders in order to be able to see them. Click here if you don’t know how to do that.

From the start menu:

Press simultaneously the Win button together with the R button (Win+R)

In the Run window that just opened type msconfig

Click on the Startup tab.

This menu controls which programs are loaded when windows starts after a reboot. Disable anything that seems suspicious. Optionally you can also disable any program that you don’t need and also has a high impact on your startup time.

Feel free to write to us in the comment section with any questions that you may have. Also if we have been helpful to you please share this article to help us reach more people like you.